But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance

This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every moring: great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion saith my soul: therefore will I hope in him. The Lord is good unto them that wait for Him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD. Lamentations 3: 21-26

Tuesday, April 3, 2007

Spring Reading Thing--Book Review

The Illearth War is the second in a trilogy of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever. I read the first Lord Foul’s Bane a while back and struggled through the first half and flew through the last half. It was a love/hate relationship and I would/will read it again (and probably again).

Thomas Covenant is a modern day leper who in the first story is pulled into “the Land” in a near accident and called to bring a message to those who dwell there about an apocalypse that is threatened. Covenant is the image of a long-gone her, Berek Half-Hand, who had rescued "the Land" before. His white-gold wedding ring he wears, even though divorced is a powerful magic that could save or betray the land. Covenant struggles to maintain his safe practices that he must follow as a leper to keep his body from becoming more ravaged, while struggling with the appearance that while in “the Land” he finds health returning. He questions his sanity and distances himself from the good people who would do him honor and give him friendship.

In the second book we find that four days after Covenant’s return to the “real world” he is pulled back into “the Land” where forty years have passed. Lord Foul marches on Revelstone with intent to waste everything, to kill and destroy the beauty and health that is “the Land” and the fair and honorable people who live there.

Covenant finds that some of his acquaintances remain, although wearied and aged. Some have died. And there are two new people who will affect him dramatically although he tries to remain set apart. The first is the new High Lord, Elena the young (by comparison) leader of the people whose task it is to lead the people against Lord Foul. The second is more surprising, another person from the “real world” who has also been pulled into “the Land.’ A man called Hile Troy, blind from birth. But not just blind, blind beyond blind having no eyes, no hope of sight in the “real world.” But in “the Land” able not only to see, but to see better than, farther than the inhabitants. He becomes their Warmark, their army’s general, with a battle plan to save the people. Troy embraces and loves the land as much as Covenant remains cautious and distant.

I don’t think I am that great in the area of book reviews. I don’t know how to compel someone to desire to read something that has moved me. I can tell you it is a great book. Donaldson is a poet. His language is a loom and his stories are tapestries. His writing forces me to a dictionary. Something that doesn’t happen a lot anymore. I rarely find myself challenged when reading by actual words, perhaps because I don’t read challenging enough books (but I don’t think that is true) but mostly because it seems most authors choose accessible language and that is often a good choice. Donaldson choose beautiful words with texture and palette. Reading his work can be an exercise.

If you are at all a fantasy fan, if you love Tolkien, Herbert, Zimmer-Bradley books, and haven’t read this trilogy, I highly recommend giving these books a try. Be forewarned and prepared that my initial response was not positive. It is a heartbreaking story.

1 comment:

Joy is the great note all through the Bible. We have the notion of joy that arises from good spirits or good health, but the miracle of the joy of God has nothing to do with a man’s life or his circumstances or the condition he is in. Jesus does not come to a man and say “Cheer up.” He plants within a man the miracle of the joy of God’s own nature. –Oswald Chambers

Every day, each moment, every single breath is an new opportunity to search for, find and embrace “joy in all things.” I am a Catholic (revert) believer striving to be obedient and pleasing to my Heavenly Father.
I am a wife, mother of two sons, daughter, sister, aunt, niece and friend. Reader, collector of hobbies, eclectic homeschool & ballet mom.

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Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:1-2

No matter how good food is, if poison is mixed with it, it may cause the death of him who eats it. So it is with conversation. A single bad word, an evil action, an unbecoming joke, is often enough to harm one or more young listeners, and may later cause them to lose God's grace.

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It is never true that we have no time to meditate; the less one thinks of God, the less time there will always be for Him. The time one has for anything depends on how much we value it. Thinking determines the use of time; time does not rule over thinking! The problem of spirituality is never, then, a question of time; it is a problem of thought. For it does not require much time to make us saints; it requires only much love.

My Talented Husband

Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality.Romans 12:9-13